Amid all the fresh interest in Apple’s iCloud cloud-storage option following the company’s rollout of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Microsoft doesn’t want you to forget about its cloud-storage service, OneDrive. Late yesterday the company announced a promotion that bumps up OneDrive’s free storage tier — and not only for iPhone users, but for Android and Windows Phone owners as well.

Douglas Pearce, group program manager for OneDrive, walked people through the offer and its implications in a blog post:

All you have to do is sign up for OneDrive and activate the auto upload feature for your camera roll sometime between now and the end of September, and you will get 30 GB of free OneDrive storage moving forward (15 GB base and 15 GB camera roll bonus). For those getting ready to install iOS8, this means you won’t have to delete a bunch of photos or apps to make room for the upgrade. For those buying a new phone, it means you can take all the high resolution photos and videos you want without worrying about the amount of storage you have.

The storage increase also applies out to iPhone owners who already send their pictures to OneDrive, Pearce wrote.

Microsoft can make such moves quickly and defend itself in the cloud-storage business because it operates data centers and buys storage at scale. Companies like Google and Amazon can do so as well, and now that its Zocalo file-sharing service is available, it’s reasonable to expect price cuts, storage boosts, and other teasers from Amazon in the future. Box and Dropbox, which are still privately owned, have been making driving up storage capacity as well, but they’re just not as large as Microsoft.

In the light of Apple’s iCloud price cut this month, it’s worth keeping an eye on Apple to see if it becomes even more aggressive in challenging Microsoft and others in the cloud-storage business in the future.

More information:

More information:

]]>0Look out, iCloud. Microsoft buffs up OneDrive with more free storageMicrosoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service gets rebadged as ‘OneDrive’http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/27/microsofts-skydrive-cloud-storage-service-gets-rebadged-as-onedrive/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/27/microsofts-skydrive-cloud-storage-service-gets-rebadged-as-onedrive/#commentsMon, 27 Jan 2014 14:48:06 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=887516Forget SkyDrive, say hello to “OneDrive.” Microsoft just announced that it is rebranding its cloud storage service as OneDrive, a move that follows a dispute with British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB) over the SkyDrive name. Last June, a U.K. court ruled that Microsoft’s SkyDrive name infringed on a BSkyB trademark. While it seemed like Microsoft […]
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Forget SkyDrive, say hello to “OneDrive.”

Microsoft just announced that it is rebranding its cloud storage service as OneDrive, a move that follows a dispute with British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB) over the SkyDrive name.

Last June, a U.K. court ruled that Microsoft’s SkyDrive name infringed on a BSkyB trademark. While it seemed like Microsoft would appeal that decision, the two companies ended up announcing a settlement in July that would see Microsoft eventually changing the SkyDrive name.

Given its recent reorganization and new “One Microsoft” strategy, the OneDrive name makes a lot of sense for Microsoft. Launched in 2007, SkyDrive was Microsoft’s first big stab at cloud storage, which preceded solutions like Dropbox.

“We believe the new OneDrive name conveys the value we can deliver for you and best represents our vision for the future,” Ryan Gavin, Microsoft’s general manager for consumer apps and services said in a blog post today.

Gavin notes that current SkyDrive users won’t have to do anything as the service transitions to its new name.

In a move that’s great news for anyone plugged into its ecosystem, Microsoft is emailing Windows Phone users with offers of 20GB of free SkyDrive space.

The move is, of course, an extremely smart, obvious one for Microsoft, which is leveraging two of its biggest assets to not only draw in new customers but also to keep the ones it already has. (The company already gives Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 owners 200GB of SkyDrive space.)

Unfortunately, the offer, which expires in January, only has a shelf life of a year, after which any unused space will disappear. That’s why the deal won’t end up costing Microsoft too much money in the end. While some customers might end up using up the entire 20GB (and paying for it afterwards), the vast majority will leave the bulk of it unused.

The giveaway is not a new strategy by any stretch — Dropbox, Box, and Google do it too — but it does show that Microsoft is willing to do what it takes to attract more users to its services and ecosystem.

]]>1Microsoft gifts Windows Phone owners 20GB of Skydrive storageiPhone users: Microsoft SkyDrive just got a lot more attractivehttp://venturebeat.com/2013/11/21/iphone-users-microsoft-skydrive-just-got-a-lot-more-attractive/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/21/iphone-users-microsoft-skydrive-just-got-a-lot-more-attractive/#commentsThu, 21 Nov 2013 17:00:23 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=863479Microsoft’s cloud storage service just got a major overhaul on iOS. The revamped SkyDrive app hit Apple’s marketplace today with a whiter, iOS 7-inspired interface and a few new features, including auto-upload functionality. It’s the first update for the two year-old app since the spring — and the first major one in even longer. The “Camera […]
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Microsoft’s cloud storage service just got a major overhaul on iOS.

The revamped SkyDrive app hit Apple’s marketplace today with a whiter, iOS 7-inspired interface and a few new features, including auto-upload functionality. It’s the first update for the two year-old app since the spring — and the first major one in even longer.

The “Camera Backup” feature enables you to automatically upload all the content in your camera roll to Microsoft’s cloud storage locker, which offers a free 7 GB before you need to start tossing in some cash for the premium tiers. When you flip on auto-upload, you can choose to use your data network or just Wi-Fi, then the app will start uploading your entire back catalog of photos and videos to SkyDrive.

Above: SkyDrive’s “Camera Backup” feature in action on iOS

Flickr, which offers a terabyte of free cloud storage for photos, added an auto-upload feature to its iOS app in early October. The SkyDrive team, unsurprisingly, thinks it has the superior offering for iOS.

“When you’re thinking about a scenario like this where you’re backing up your photos and videos, Flickr is really a service about sharing,” said Ryan Hoge, lead program manager for SkyDrive, in a conversation with VentureBeat. “What we’re trying to roll out here is having all of your photos — and having the feeling that they’re yours, they’re private.”

But you do want to share them, you can post directly to Facebook from SkyDrive. And SkyDrive isn’t only for media files; you can also view and edit Office documents.

SkyDrive is heavily integrated into Windows 8.1 and other Microsoft products like Xbox One. But that doesn’t mean you need Microsoft hardware to use it, as the SkyDrive team is demonstrating with this release.

“We want to create a great experience no matter what platform you’re on,” said Angus Logan, head of product marketing for SkyDrive, in a conversation with VentureBeat. “We want you to always have your files with you. If we discriminate against any one platform, then we sort of break that promise.”

There is one neat feature exclusive to Windows Phones, though: optical character recognition. If you upload a picture to SkyDrive that includes printed text somewhere in the image — say a cocktail menu — SkyDrive can generate metadata so that when you search for “cocktail,” it will automatically find that image.

There’s also a SkyDrive app available for Android, but the SkyDrive team declined to comment on when it might get an update to bring it in line with this new iOS release.

Microsoft SkyDrive competes with cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box, among others. (Now, developers, please build an app that links all of them.)

More information:

More information:

]]>0iPhone users: Microsoft SkyDrive just got a lot more attractiveMicrosoft confirms it will change SkyDrive name after trademark suithttp://venturebeat.com/2013/07/31/microsoft-changing-skydrive-name/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/31/microsoft-changing-skydrive-name/#commentsWed, 31 Jul 2013 17:04:34 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=787261Microsoft has done a lot of work to make SkyDrive one of the most competitive cloud storage services on the market. But soon the name SkyDrive will fly away into the clouds, never to be heard again.
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Microsoft has done a lot of work to make SkyDrive one of the most competitive cloud storage services on the market. But soon it will be dropping the name SkyDrive.

After a U.K. court ruled that the SkyDrive name infringed on a trademark owned by British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB), Microsoft said today that it will get rid of the name and pick a new one.

“We’re glad to have resolution of this naming dispute, and will continue to deliver the great service our hundreds of millions of customers expect, providing the best way to always have your files with you,” Microsoft said in a statement via email.

BSkyB said it will give Microsoft “a reasonable period of time” to transition the brand to another name. Perhaps it will keep the Drive name and change the “Sky” part to something else associated with Microsoft such as Windows, Xbox, Outlook, or Office.

]]>0Microsoft confirms it will change SkyDrive name after trademark suitSkyDrive adds a slew of new features, with GIF support, group file sharing, and morehttp://venturebeat.com/2013/07/30/skydrive-photo-management-gifs-file-sharing/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/30/skydrive-photo-management-gifs-file-sharing/#commentsTue, 30 Jul 2013 13:59:27 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=786461Today Microsoft has improved SkyDrive further, and this time it's focusing on making its web interface better and smarter.
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Microsoft has been adding a lot of new features to cloud storage service SkyDrive as of late, trying to create one of the most robust players in the space.

Today Microsoft has improved SkyDrive further, and this time it’s focusing on making its web interface better. This update adds improved photo sorting and management, support for animated GIFs, the ability to share groups of files from anywhere in SkyDrive, a new “shared view” for seeing who has access to what files, the ability to anyone edit SkyDrive files when you send it via email, and new developer-focused text editing.

The arguably biggest addition in today’s big list is better photo management and support. Microsoft has added support for high DPI displays so you can see high-res photos and thumbnails better and added support for fun animated gifs. Also included for photos is better sorting and management so you can rotate photos inside the web client and the ability to filter photos in the All Photos view.

Next up, there’s group file sharing. SkyDrive already let you share an entire folder or an individual file with people. Now you can share individual groups of files with people. It’s a relatively small update, but could make life easier when you, say, want to send four pictures from a vacation that are sitting in a folder stuffed with images.

Finally, Microsoft added three more things to make things a little easier for users. The new Shared view lets you see exactly which files and folders are shared with who. Anyone can edit a SkyDrive file that has been sent via email without having to sign in to SkyDrive. Also, developers that thrive on text files will like the ability to edit all kinds of text files.

SkyDrive competes against Dropbox, Google Drive, SugarSync, and other cloud storage providers. The features it adds today makes it extremely competitive against these other options, but the fight is going to carry on for some time.

]]>0SkyDrive adds a slew of new features, with GIF support, group file sharing, and moreMicrosoft adds 'placeholder files' and offline access to SkyDrive in Windows 8.1http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/22/skydrive-8-1-placeholder-files-offline-access/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/22/skydrive-8-1-placeholder-files-offline-access/#commentsMon, 22 Jul 2013 18:59:18 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=782837Microsoft has detailed more features of its SkyDrive cloud storage app inside the upcoming Windows 8.1 operating system update, and a few of them are pretty awesome.
]]>Microsoft has detailed more features of its SkyDrive cloud storage system inside the upcoming Windows 8.1 operating system update, and a few of them are pretty awesome.

With deepening SkyDrive support directly inside Windows 8.1 and boosting its feature set, it looks like Microsoft is doing its best to make SkyDrive a major selling point in Windows 8.1.

The first major feature update for SkyDrive in 8.1 is something Microsoft calls “placeholder files.” Basically, if you use SkyDrive for cloud storage of your files and photos, you can now access your files inside 8.1 without the files actually being in the folder. Instead, data about your files, including thumbnail info, represents the file in the folder without the whole thing being downloaded.

Ideally, the option of using placeholder files gives you the freedom to store a lot inside SkyDrive without everything being synced on the corresponding folder on your computer. But you still get easy access to those files and know what files are sitting in SkyDrive.

One scenario where placeholder files is ideal is looking at photos. Microsoft writes:

For photos, flipping through lots of pictures in one go is a common scenario. We wanted to give you fast scrolling of photos without taking up a lot of local disk space. So we’re doing something even more special there. When you flip through photos, we download large thumbnail images instead of the actual files. And we pre-fetch thumbnails to enable fast scrolling. It’s only when you want to edit a photo that we download the full file to the local disk.

Another handy feature in SkyDrive in 8.1 is offline access to files. If you go into SkyDrive and mark a file or folder for offline access, it will be there for you to work with. And because SkyDrive is so deeply connected with 8.1, the changes you make are automatically synchronized as soon as you are back online.

Microsoft makes it easy to tell which files are offline-ready and not:

All of these enhancements will make SkyDrive a more formidable opponent to Dropbox, Google Drive, SugarSync, and other cloud-storage services.

]]>0Microsoft adds 'placeholder files' and offline access to SkyDrive in Windows 8.1Microsoft: Hey small businesses, you need an Xbox One for businessy reasonshttp://venturebeat.com/2013/07/11/microsoft-hey-small-businesses-you-need-an-xbox-one-for-businessy-reasons/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/11/microsoft-hey-small-businesses-you-need-an-xbox-one-for-businessy-reasons/#commentsThu, 11 Jul 2013 21:22:22 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=778256Microsoft publishes a letter that suggests the Xbox One can be a productivity machine.
]]>Gaming execs:Join 180 select leaders from King, Glu, Rovio, Unity, Facebook, and more to plan your path to global domination in 2015. GamesBeat Summit is invite-only -- apply here. Ticket prices increase on April 3rd!

The upcoming Xbox One is ostensibly a gaming console, but Microsoft always seems ready to expand it into non-gaming territories.

For example, now it is positioning it as the perfect companion device for small businesses.

Microsoft published an open letter (via Game Politics) earlier this week to small businesses explaining why they should look into buying an Xbox One. The letter, authored by Consumer Camp founder (and non-Microsoft employee) Marques Lyons, noted that most mom-and-pop shops rely on phones and PCs to keep connected with customers or to maintain their books, but Lyons thinks that the next-gen console has features that also mesh well with operating a store.

“[The Xbox One] is being positioned as an excellent entertainment device, [but it] can be just as enticing for you and your small business,” wrote Lyons. “In fact, it’s entirely justifiable to make the Xbox One a business expense. The Xbox One, priced at $499, is an affordable option for small business owners, as there are many features built into the console that could help it rival even the most modest of video conferencing and networking platforms.”

What are those features? Lyons lists Skype, SkyDrive, Wi-Fi Direct, Internet Explorer, and a few others.

“Xbox One will allow people to not only use Skype on the console, but it will allow for multiperson chatting,” wrote Lyons. “Combine this with the wide-angle lens and 1080p view of the included Kinect, and you have the means for collaborative meetings and presentations.”

For a small business that does a lot of video conferencing, this might make sense. That $500 price isn’t that expensive for a video solution that is easy to implement and use. Of course, most small businesses will probably just use their laptops or desktops to do Internet Skype calls, but this is a decent solution for getting a group of people in front of a television to video chat with another group.

Lyons also pointed out Xbox One’s SkyDrive integration. This allows users to quickly access their files from Microsoft’s cloud-storage service. Using the “snap” mode, which enables Xbox One users to multitask multiple apps, Xbox One owners could also quickly share their SkyDrive files with others over Skype.

Wi-Fi Direct is essentially a standardized version of Apple’s AirPlay that enables devices to stream video and data directly to one another.

“[Small businesses could] send their presentations to the TV, use SmartGlass to navigate through the PowerPoint presentation, and use a tablet to control Internet Explorer,” wrote Lyons.

The evangelist went on to talk a bit about the future of the Xbox One app store. He claims the Xbox One could grow into an even better business machine with new apps that cater to those needs.

Any one of these things alone probably wouldn’t make the Xbox One a worthwhile investment for a small business, but as a versatile device that can also play games, movies, and music, maybe it’s not such a bad idea.

Plus if all those small businesses are writing off their Xbox Ones, it lowers the chance that the IRS will audit me when I write mine off.

Xbox One is due out in November.

]]>0Microsoft: Hey small businesses, you need an Xbox One for businessy reasonsMicrosoft says over 250M people are now using SkyDrivehttp://venturebeat.com/2013/05/06/microsoft-says-over-250m-people-are-now-using-skydrive/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/06/microsoft-says-over-250m-people-are-now-using-skydrive/#commentsMon, 06 May 2013 16:12:28 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=731808Google Drive and Dropbox competitor SkyDrive now has more than 250 million users, Microsoft said today in a blog post.
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Google Drive and Dropbox competitor SkyDrive now has more than 250 million users, Microsoft said today in a blog post.

Another thing that has given SkyDrive a recent boost was the launch of Windows 8, which includes SkyDrive integration. 50 million more SkyDrive users came into the fold after Windows 8 launched last October. Microsoft writes:

It’s been a very busy year for SkyDrive and we’d like to thank all of you for helping us improve the service through your feedback, tweets, Facebook posts, and comments. The service continues to grow: since October 2012 when Windows 8 launched, 50 million more people have started using SkyDrive, helping us reach an important milestone – over 250 million people are now using SkyDrive as the new place to save their files.

]]>1Microsoft says over 250M people are now using SkyDriveMicrosoft finally updates SkyDrive for iOS with iPhone 5 & iPad Mini supporthttp://venturebeat.com/2013/04/03/microsoft-skydrive-for-ios-finally-updated-with-iphone-5-ipad-mini-support/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/03/microsoft-skydrive-for-ios-finally-updated-with-iphone-5-ipad-mini-support/#commentsWed, 03 Apr 2013 16:17:25 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=709916After a long wait, Microsoft has added new support for the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini to SkyDrive's iOS app and the capability to download full resolution photos.
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“With the release of Windows 8 and Windows RT back in October, more and more people every day are using SkyDrive for their most important files through the SkyDrive app as well as through SkyDrive integration in File Explorer,” SkyDrive group program manager Mike Torres wrote in a blog post today. “Of course, there are great SkyDrive experiences for Windows devices, but being the place for all your files means we invest a significant amount of effort ensuring you have a great experience across all the devices you want to use.”

]]>0Microsoft finally updates SkyDrive for iOS with iPhone 5 & iPad Mini supportFollowing latest Office 365 launch, SkyDrive now hosting 1B Office documentshttp://venturebeat.com/2013/02/08/following-latest-office-365-launch-skydrive-now-hosting-1b-office-documents/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/08/following-latest-office-365-launch-skydrive-now-hosting-1b-office-documents/#commentsFri, 08 Feb 2013 14:27:04 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=619200Looks like connecting the world's top document software with the cloud is really paying off. Microsoft has announced that more than one billion Office documents are now stored in SkyDrive, following the launch of Office 365 Home Premium last week.
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Looks like connecting the world’s top document software with the cloud is paying off. Microsoft has announced that more than one billion Office documents are now stored in SkyDrive, following the launch of Office 365 Home Premium last week.

SkyDrive is Microsoft’s cloud storage solution for consumers and businesses. To account for the growing reliance people have on the cloud, Microsoft made it so that Office 365 simultaneously saves documents to a local hard drive and SkyDrive to make sure your documents are always backed up. That set up has clearly increased SkyDrive usage, along with the growing number of SkyDrive users using Windows 8, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone apps.

Microsoft Group Program Manager Omar Shahine writes in a blog post today:

Last week Office 365 Home Premium launched and we’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm over the seamless integration of SkyDrive for saving and sharing your docs. Recently we reached a big milestone; our customers are now storing over a billion Office documents on SkyDrive! We’re really excited about the feedback we’ve seen around the new version of Office and the deep integration of SkyDrive. We’re taking it a step further today by announcing a new feature in SkyDrive and the Office Web Apps that allows a more seamless sharing and editing experience for our customers.

The new sharing and editing feature is relatively minor, but we’ll take any feature that makes our lives a little easier. Microsoft has made it so that all recipients you send a SkyDrive “edit link” to will be able to make changes to a document in Office Web Apps without signing into a Microsoft account. Ideally, that makes editing and collaborating on documents using SkyDrive less of a hassle.

Have you tried SkyDrive or are Dropbox and Google Drive more your thing?

Due to conflict over its App Store policy, Apple has stopped letting Microsoft issue new updates to its SkyDrive iOS app.

The two rival companies are apparently locked in an argument over Microsoft’s recent decision to allow people to upgrade the amount of storage available on a SkyDrive account while inside the iOS app, according to The Next Web. Apple feels that it should be making some kind of money off of every purchase made through an iOS app, which is a standard 30 percent commission.

That includes SkyDrive upgrades, and every month thereafter that a particular user continues paying for the upgraded space.

However, SkyDrive (and many other cloud services for that matter) can be used across a variety of platforms. For example, I could sign up for extra SkyDrive storage space on my iPhone, and only ever use the service via my Android tablet. That means Apple is getting a cut for doing relatively nothing. That said, Microsoft isn’t playing ball. And as a result, Apple appears to be locking out other third-party iOS apps that interact with SkyDrive.

The Next Web’s source indicates that Apple has also rejected any proposal by Microsoft on a compromise on compensation, as well as removing the SkyDrive update ability from the app.

We’re reaching out to both Apple and Microsoft for more details. We’ll update the post with anything new we find.

“Similar to the experiences of some other companies, we are experiencing a delay in approval of our updated SkyDrive for iOS. We are in contact with Apple regarding the matter and hope to come to a resolution. We will provide additional information as it becomes available.”

]]>0Microsoft refuses to pay Apple a commission on SkyDrive iOS app9 unexpectedly cool features in Windows Phone 8http://venturebeat.com/2012/10/29/windows-phone-8-features/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/10/29/windows-phone-8-features/#commentsMon, 29 Oct 2012 18:24:40 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=565190Most of the features Microsoft is rolling out with Windows Phone 8 are already well-known, but the company still managed to surprise us with a handful of cool new features at its unveiling today.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft executive Joe Belfiore showed off the company’s latest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 8, in front of a friendly audience at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium today. He was joined briefly by actress Jessica Alba and, at the end of the event, by Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, who hawked some of the latest phones and carriers with Windows Phone 8 devices.

Microsoft has been planning this rollout for a long time, and most of its major features are already well-known. But the company surprised us with a handful of cool new features.

Customizable lock screen

Windows has had customizable “live tiles” since Windows Phone 7, which can deliver snippets of custom data, such as calendar appointments and Facebook photos, directly to an app’s tile on your phone’s home screen. Now the company extends that customization to the phone’s lock screen too. Result: If an app supports it, you can customize your lock screen with information from that app. For example, in the new Facebook app for Windows Phone 8, you can have your lock screen display the latest photos from your friends.

Skype

Skype will be deeply integrated into Windows Phone 8, Belfiore promised. For instance, you’ll be able to receive chat notifications and Skype calls even when you don’t have the app open. The incoming Skype call screen looks similar to the one for regular phone calls, and you can even use the phone’s call-waiting features to switch between Skype and regular calls.

Pandora

Pandora has been one of the most glaring absences from the array of Windows Phone apps. Microsoft knows it needs to play catch up, fast. Getting Pandora onto Windows Phone 8 was a real coup — and as a bonus, Windows Phone Pandora will offer one year of cost-free, advertising-free music. It won’t be available until early 2013, however.

Kid’s Corner

Do your kids like to borrow your phone so they can play Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds? Mine too. The new Kid’s Corner feature lets you set up a special login screen just for your kids. It’s got larger, more colorful app tiles, and you can specify which apps, games, music, and videos show up there. To show off the feature, Belfiore’s three kids came onto the stage for one of the cutest tech demonstrations in the history of San Francisco tech demos. His five-year-old daughter bypassed the Kid’s Corner immediately and went straight to the regular homescreen — oops! But once she got to the right screen, she found Fruit Ninja right away.

“I love kid’s corner. I think it’s awesome,” said actress and entrepreneur Jessica Alba, who came onstage briefly to wow the roomful of mostly male nerds and to talk about how much she likes Windows Phone.

Data Sense

Windows Phone now includes a feature that compresses web page data while you’re browsing to make sure you don’t overuse your wireless data allotment. Belfiore said this will enable 45% more web browsing with the same amount of data. Data Sense also helps you find local Wi-Fi hotspots on a map and automatically switches you over to Wi-Fi whenever possible. In addition, when you get close to your carrier-imposed cap, you can have it restrict background data downloads to help you eke out an extra few days.

Rooms

Microsoft added a new feature to its People hub: The ability to create “Rooms” for groups of people. Rooms are collections of people, but also include a shared, private messaging string; a shared calendar; and shared notes. You can share calendars with iPhone users, but other features are WP8-only.

Voice notes in OneNote

Windows Phone’s note-taking application, OneNote, now includes a handy voice transcription tool. From anywhere in the OS, press and hold the Start button and say the word “Note.” It will record your voice, transcribe the audio to text, and save both to Skydrive.

Skydrive integration

Skydrive, Microsoft’s cloud-based storage service, is well-integrated into Windows Phone, just as it is in Windows 8. That means you can easily store photos, documents, and other data on your phone and access it from a PC or Windows 8 tablet (or vice versa). Skydrive automatically stores all photos you take indefinitely — unlike the 30-day limit that Apple’s iCloud imposes.

Xbox Music

Although Microsoft had announced it earlier, this is a cool feature worth highlighting: Windows Phone 8 can access all your music via the company’s Xbox Music service. Belfiore said Xbox Music now includes a library of 30 million tracks, any of which you can listen to from your phone or Windows 8 PC or tablet — or your Xbox.

“No other phone works this seamlessly across your phone, your PC, and your home entertainment system,” Belfiore said.

]]>09 unexpectedly cool features in Windows Phone 8Microsoft’s cloud service SkyDrive is great, and no one has noticedhttp://venturebeat.com/2012/09/23/microsofts-cloud-service-skydrive-is-great-and-no-one-has-noticed/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/23/microsofts-cloud-service-skydrive-is-great-and-no-one-has-noticed/#commentsSun, 23 Sep 2012 20:30:37 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=537270Guest:Gaming execs: Join 180 select leaders from King, Glu, Rovio, Unity, Facebook, and more to plan your path to global domination in 2015. GamesBeat Summit is invite-only -- apply here. Ticket prices increase on April 3rd! This is a guest post, written by investor Brad Feld. In July I wrote a post where I was Searching For A Collaborative Writing Tool. I […]
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In July I wrote a post where I was Searching For A Collaborative Writing Tool. I got a bunch of suggestions – some people suggested their startups, some suggested Google Docs, and one person (a friend who works for Microsoft) suggested Microsoft SkyDrive. Amy Batchelor and I were deep in working on Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur. We were trying to use Scrivener but that wasn’t working for two writers so I moved us to Google Docs. But I knew that wouldn’t be great because I’ve struggled with long documents in Google Docs in the past, especially since eventually we had to move to Microsoft Word for our publisher (Wiley) anyway.

Two weeks ago I decided to move everything to Word as we started the final push to getting the publisher draft out (which is due on 10/12/12). As part of this, I decided to give SkyDrive a try and see if we could both work on the document at the same time in Word.

We’ve been using it for two weeks and it is awesome. Stunningly awesome. Perfect. We can work in the browser and that’s fine for short things, but the beauty is we can download the doc into Word and it automagically keeps our edits in sync on the server. We can both work in Word – online or offline – at the same time and when we connect all the changes get updated to the server and then pushed down to our individual copies of Word. In short, it does exactly what you’d expect it to do. And – we are both using Word on the Mac – which is solid and a nice surprise to me that any of this really works on the Mac given my generally miserable Microsoft + Mac software experience.

I’m blown away. I also can’t believe no one knows about it or is talking about Microsoft SkyDrive. I can’t believe Microsoft isn’t promoting it front and center. Or maybe they are and I’m just missing it.

The only annoying thing is that it works better in Safari than in Chrome on the Mac. Somehow that doesn’t surprise me, but everything else about SkyDrive does. What a fun discovery.

]]>1Microsoft’s cloud service SkyDrive is great, and no one has noticedNew Windows Phone 8 features: screenshots, pinch-to-zoom camera, morehttp://venturebeat.com/2012/09/05/windows-phone-8-features-screenshots/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/05/windows-phone-8-features-screenshots/#commentsWed, 05 Sep 2012 15:15:11 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=525633Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 8 mobile OS will include the ability to capture screenshots and several new camera functions like panorama setting, the company said on stage at today's big Nokia event.
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Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 8 mobile OS will include the ability to capture screenshots and several new camera functions like panorama setting, the company said on stage at today’s big Nokia event.

Microsoft corporate VP Joe Belfiore (pictured) talked about new features for the Windows Phone 8, which will be included on the just-announced Nokia Lumia 920. One of the big features the Lumia 920 includes is a PureView camera that claims to be one of the best smartphone cameras ever made. In tandem, Belfiore decided to show off new camera features for WP8.

Here’s what he introduced on stage:

Screenshots — Windows Phone 8 will make it much easier to take screenshots, something developers (and phone reviewers) have wanted for a long while. Pressing the home button and power button will take a screenshot of what’s on your screen.

Pinch-to-zoom camera support — Inside the native Windows Phone 8 camera app, there is no more zoom bar. Instead, you can pinch-to-zoom like you do on other smartphone OSes.

Blink Lens app — This one’s pretty cool. The Blink Lens app, which was written by Microsoft’s research team, lets you get a great picture of someone’s face by snapping a ton of photos at once. It automatically picks the best photo, or you can go back later to modify it and pick one you like more.

Deep SkyDrive integration — Full resolution photos will automatically be uploaded to one’s SkyDrive account. Belfiore took a photo and it automatically showed up in the native SkyDrive app on a Windows 8 laptop, showing the connected state of SkyDrive to all devices. (Just don’t take any naked pics of yourself.)

While we have reservations about SkyDrive over its harsh content restrictions, many people like the service. Microsoft is pushing people to use SkyDrive with its upcoming Windows 8 OS and Office 2013 software. In the new version of Office, the default for saving files is now SkyDrive instead of your local hard drive. Windows 8 has a slick SkyDrive app for using your files.

Now that SkyDrive is officially on Android and already has iOS and Windows Phone clients, Microsoft has mobile covered pretty well, too. Ideally, SkyDrive could become the easiest possible way to access files no matter what device you use.

“We want to ensure that you’re able to have your files accessible across the various devices you use — so it’s important that we continue to extend the SkyDrive experience to the devices you use every day,” SkyDrive group program manager Mike Torres wrote in a blog post. “This new app for Android is similar to our mobile apps for Windows Phone and iOS and is a key part of making sure your SkyDrive files are accessible and shareable from all your devices.”

The app works for Android 2.3 and up. It promises the following features:

• Access to all of your SkyDrive content, including files shared with you.
• View recently used documents.
• Choose multiple photos or videos to upload from your phone.
• Share your files and photos – send a link in email or in another app.
• Open your SkyDrive files in other Android apps.
• Manage your files – delete, or create new folders.

You can get a better look at the app below.

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]]>0Microsoft’s SkyDrive app lands on AndroidMicrosoft unveils modern UI & new Android app for SkyDrive; Outlook.com now at 10M usershttp://venturebeat.com/2012/08/14/skydrive-modern-ui/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/14/skydrive-modern-ui/#commentsTue, 14 Aug 2012 18:38:39 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=509241Microsoft has unveiled a new version of its SkyDrive cloud storage service and a new SkyDrive Android app. It also revealed the new Outlook.com email service that has attracted 10 million users since its launch two weeks ago.
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Microsoft has unveiled a new version of its SkyDrive cloud storage service and a new SkyDrive Android app, the company announced today. It also revealed the new Outlook.com email service has attracted 10 million users since its launch two weeks ago.

SkyDrive is Microsoft’s cloud-storage play, and it competes side-by-side with services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and SugarSync. SkyDrive has taken on increased importance in the past year because it connects deeply to other Microsoft products, including Office 2013, Windows Phone, and Windows 8.

The updated interface for SkyDrive.com shares many similarities with Outlook.com, which replaced the Hotmail brand and now has 10 million users in a matter of weeks. Like Outlook, SkyDrive emphasizes a clean and modern UI. I’d call it “Metro” design, but Microsoft has ditched that term and frustratingly hasn’t replaced it.

The updated UI adds new features like instant search, a contextual toolbar, drag-and-drop, and better sorting. The new design will roll out in the next 24 hours. Take a look at the new modern UI for SkyDrive below.

On top of changing the web interface, Microsoft has improved the SkyDrive desktop apps for Windows and OS X. It has made some under-the-hood tweaks to give users faster uploads and fixed some bugs. Microsoft also improved bulk photo uploads.

Microsoft has also promised a revamped mobile experience that will match the desktop and web, and a new Android app will hit the Google Play store in just a few weeks. Microsoft writes:

The Android app is similar to our mobile apps for Windows Phone and iOS and allows you to browse your SkyDrive, upload files to SkyDrive, as well as share SkyDrive files with “Send a link.” You’ll also be able to open SkyDrive files from other apps, as well as upload, save, and share to SkyDrive from other apps.

Here’s a look at the Android app.

Check out the new SkyDrive in the video below.

SkyDrive photos: Microsoft

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After several leaks, Microsoft has confirmed that its SkyDrive cloud storage solution is about to receive a major update with desktop syncing, a SkyDrive Metro app for Windows 8, secure remote access, and other helpful additions.

There has been much movement in the cloud-storage space in the past six months. Apple recently announced it would directly integrate its consumer cloud solution, iCloud, with its upcoming Mountain Lion Mac operating system. Google may also enter the fray with its own Drive cloud-storage service in the next few months. And of course, you’ve got players like Dropbox, Box, SugarSync, and Amazon Cloud Drive that continue to innovate in this area.

Microsoft detailed its latest additions, which will come to SkyDrive in the next several months, on the Building Windows 8 blog. The company used this spotlight as a chance to further detail its vision of how cloud storage should work in applications and across an operating system.

“We think what people want in personal cloud storage is a single drive that’s available across all of their devices, tailored to the experiences they’re using, providing instant, secure, and private access to their files, and sharing files and folders with people they choose,” the company wrote on the blog. “To bring this to billions of people, our approach is to seamlessly connect the files (and behaviors) that people have today on the PC with the app and device experiences that they will use in the future. Rather than using a patchwork of services, people can use one service to connect to their files — with no compromises.”

SkyDrive is currently available via any browser at Skydrive.com, and through applications on Windows Phone, iOS, and Android. With the new additions, SkyDrive will see deep integration with the Windows 8 OS and new integration into Windows Explorer on the desktop for Windows Vista, 7, and 8 users. The biggest addition is arguably the Windows 8 app, which you can see screenshots above and below.

The Windows 8 Metro app will bring cloud storage to a touch-friendly interface and offer an API so third-party applications can tie themselves to SkyDrive. The Metro app has been designed to deliver “a fast, fluid, touch-first version of SkyDrive that makes it quick, easy, and even fun to browse and access your files” and to make “your SkyDrive available for use from any Metro style app via the file picker (open/save) and the new Share charm in Windows 8.” You’ll be able to get your hands on the new SkyDrive Windows 8 app in preliminary form when it releases the Windows 8 Consumer Preview late this month.

Microsoft provides 17 million active customers with SkyDrive storage, many of which privately share photos and collaborate on Office documents, according to the blog post. While that number is paltry next to iCloud’s more than 100 million users or Dropbox’s more than 50 million reported users, it would not surprise me to see more people jump on to SkyDrive as it continues to include more features and additional Windows users learn about it.

SkyDrive also has implications for helping enterprises too. The service already allows for easy storing and collaboration with Microsoft Office documents, so with more tailoring for security and teams, it could become a serious competitor to players like Box and Egnyte.

The company did not mention storage plan options, but Brazilian site Gemind recently leaked some SkyDrive prices that suggest users can pay $10, $25, or $50 extra per year to get 20, 50, or 100GB over the base 25GB.

You can additionally view a four-minute video detailing the new SkyDrive app below:

]]>0Move over iCloud: Microsoft details extensive SkyDrive integration with Windows 8Google likely to launch Dropbox-like cloud storage service soonhttp://venturebeat.com/2012/02/09/google-dropbox-like-cloud-storage-service/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/09/google-dropbox-like-cloud-storage-service/#commentsThu, 09 Feb 2012 17:56:07 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=388383Gaming execs: Join 180 select leaders from King, Glu, Rovio, Unity, Facebook, and more to plan your path to global domination in 2015. GamesBeat Summit is invite-only -- apply here. Ticket prices increase on April 3rd! Search king Google is close to launching its own cloud storage service similar to Dropbox and Amazon CloudDrive, according to a report from the Wall […]
]]>Gaming execs:Join 180 select leaders from King, Glu, Rovio, Unity, Facebook, and more to plan your path to global domination in 2015. GamesBeat Summit is invite-only -- apply here. Ticket prices increase on April 3rd!

Search king Google is close to launching its own cloud storage service similar to Dropbox and Amazon CloudDrive, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

If the report holds true, Google will be entering an extremely crowded market with a product simply called Drive. (No relation to the awesome Ryan Gosling movie.) On top of Dropbox and Amazon, the market consists of strong players like Microsoft SkyDrive, Box, SugarSync, and many others.

Drive’s offerings would most closely resemble Dropbox, which gives users access to cloud-connected storage on smartphones, tablets, and PCs. People would be able to stores documents, photos, videos, and other large files. To send a file inside of Drive, the user could just send a link to download the file instead through a file-sharing service.

The Drive product could also very well be integrated with the Android mobile operating system, similar to what Apple did with iCloud. Apple’s iCloud, while picking up steam, only works for devices running iOS 5, Macs and PCs, so other non-Apple mobile devices are shut out.

The service is expected to launch in the “coming weeks or months.” It will offer free and paid tiers, depending on how much storage you need.

In 2007, now-CEO Larry Page had worked internally with other Googlers to launch a service called “G Drive,” but the service was postponed and never launched. During that same year, Dropbox was founded and has gone on to become one of the most widely used cloud-storage solutions with consumers, mostly because of its availability and ease of use across many platforms.

Device manufacturer HTC has partnered with Dropbox to give 5GB of free cloud storage to new HTC Android phone owners using the new Sense 3.5 interface, according to Pocket-lint.

With Apple soon launching its iCloud storage service and Microsoft pushing its Skydrive, the level at which mobile devices interact with the cloud appears to be intensifying. The HTC-Dropbox partnership will make it possible for users to access and store all kinds of files like music, video and documents in the cloud. Normally, Dropbox offers 2GB free, but Sense 3.5 users will get 3GB extra.

The first device to offer 5GB free Dropbox storage will be the female-focused HTC Rhyme Android phone, which is pictured to left and launching in October. All future HTC phones running Sense 3.5 will also get the 5GB cloud storage. HTC said it is unsure it will bring Dropbox service to its Windows Phone 7 devices because Microsoft already has Skydrive service inside of that OS. Skydrive offers a much better 25GB of free storage.

At this point, HTC has not said if older Sense users with Android phones will get the Dropbox storage, but we may see the company extend this offer to more customers in the near future to keep up with the competition.

]]>0HTC and Dropbox to give new Android phones 5GB free cloud storageMicrosoft revamps SkyDrive cloud storage with HTML5, kicks Silverlight to the curbhttp://venturebeat.com/2011/06/20/microsoft-revamps-skydrive-cloud-storage-with-html5-kicks-silverlight-to-the-curb/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/20/microsoft-revamps-skydrive-cloud-storage-with-html5-kicks-silverlight-to-the-curb/#commentsTue, 21 Jun 2011 03:38:44 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=300829After seemingly being ignored for months, Microsoft announced a major facelift for its SkyDrive cloud storage service today. Gone is the SkyDrive site’s reliance on Silverlight, Microsoft’s Flash competitor for interactive websites, in favor of a faster HTML5-driven interface. Speed is the biggest benefit with the redesign, since SkyDrive no longer has to rely on […]
]]>After seemingly being ignored for months, Microsoft announced a major facelift for its SkyDrive cloud storage service today. Gone is the SkyDrive site’s reliance on Silverlight, Microsoft’s Flash competitor for interactive websites, in favor of a faster HTML5-driven interface.

Speed is the biggest benefit with the redesign, since SkyDrive no longer has to rely on the clunky Silverlight plugin. By relying on HTML5, which is supported on pretty much every current major browser, Microsoft can deliver interactive features with something that’s already built into your web browser. The redesign also offers an easier to navigate interface and a better photo viewing experience.

Common tasks, like opening folders and browsing photo albums, have gone from speeds of 6 to 9 seconds to a near-instant 100 to 300 milliseconds, thanks to HTML5’s hardware acceleration capabilities. Microsoft says other core tasks will be sped up in the future.

Groups support has also been added to SkyDrive, which will make it easier to find and share all of your files. Microsoft says it paid considerable attention to simplifying the SkyDrive experience. Folders in the service now resemble typical Windows folders more closely, and ads have been removed in exchange for a useful file information pane.

The new SkyDrive photos interface also takes advantage of the move to HTML5 and Microsoft’s reignited focus on usability. Photos now expand to fit the full size of your web browser. Thanks to the new CSS3 Transitions standard, photo thumbnails will be instantly rearranged as you re-size the browser window. Microsoft also removed photo pages altogether, so now you can infinitely scroll through all of the photos in a particular folder. And of course, SkyDrive now sports a revamped album viewer that also supports H.264 encoded videos (up to 100 megabytes).

Given how much Microsoft was able to improve SkyDrive by dropping Silverlight, it’s no real surprise the company said last year that it was shifting its Silverlight strategy. Now Silverlight is being positioned more as Windows Phone 7’s development platform, and Microsoft is pushing HTML5 wholeheartedly for its web services. It’s no surprise then that HTML5 is a major feature in Internet Explorer 9 as well as in the upcoming Mango update of Windows Phone 7.

]]>0Microsoft revamps SkyDrive cloud storage with HTML5, kicks Silverlight to the curbSkyDrive will be the iCloud for Windows Phone 7http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/08/skydrive-will-be-the-icloud-for-windows-phone-7/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/08/skydrive-will-be-the-icloud-for-windows-phone-7/#commentsThu, 09 Jun 2011 02:37:41 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=264969A couple of days after Apple announced its iCloud storage service, Microsoft wants to remind us that its SkyDrive cloud service has already been around for a while and will have more iCloud-like features in the near future. In a blog post, Microsoft’s Group Program Manager Mike Torres described SkyDrive’s new features in detail. SkyDrive […]
]]>A couple of days after Apple announced its iCloud storage service, Microsoft wants to remind us that its SkyDrive cloud service has already been around for a while and will have more iCloud-like features in the near future.

In a blog post, Microsoft’s Group Program Manager Mike Torres described SkyDrive’s new features in detail. SkyDrive will give Windows Phone users the ability to upload photos, videos and documents to the cloud and then access them with any device. The new features will be released with the Mango version of Windows Phone 7 operating system this fall.

SkyDrive has already offered storage space for pictures and Office documents in the cloud. With Mango, users can share the photos over email, text message or Messenger/Facebook. The storage and sharing features will also expand to videos. The software will upload the videos in the background while the user is doing other things.

In addition, Windows Phone 7 and SkyDrive will be better integrated. The folders in the cloud will also appear as folders on the phone. There will be a quick search feature to the cloud, and you can see what documents other users have shared with you.

Another important feature is the ability to access email, calendar and contacts via Microsoft’s Hotmail service.

It seems SkyDrive’s features will be quite close to iCloud’s. Apple’s service starts with mail, contacts, and calendar. Steve Jobs also talked about three other new apps coming to iCloud: Documents, Photo Stream, and iTunes in the Cloud.

The music seems to be the big differentiator between SkyDrive and iCloud. With SkyDrive, you can’t upload your music files to the cloud and then use them across all your devices. Microsoft has a streaming music service Zune Pass, but you are stuck with the music selection the service has.

The latest SkyDrive features and all the other updates coming with Mango show that Microsoft is really serious about developing Windows Phone 7, as it has to be if it wants to be a player in the mobile ecosystem.

]]>0SkyDrive will be the iCloud for Windows Phone 7Windows Phone 7 one-ups Apple by letting you sync photos, notes and find your phone with Windows Live for freehttp://venturebeat.com/2010/10/11/so-long-mobileme-windows-phone-7-to-sync-your-photos-notes-and-find-your-phone-with-windows-live/
http://venturebeat.com/2010/10/11/so-long-mobileme-windows-phone-7-to-sync-your-photos-notes-and-find-your-phone-with-windows-live/#commentsMon, 11 Oct 2010 19:01:35 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=219262At its Windows Phone 7 launch event today, Microsoft mentioned that users will be able to sync their content to the cloud and track their devices online — now the Windows Live team has put up a blog post explaining what exactly users will be getting with the new phones. The big takeaway? Apple should […]
]]>At its Windows Phone 7 launch event today, Microsoft mentioned that users will be able to sync their content to the cloud and track their devices online — now the Windows Live team has put up a blog post explaining what exactly users will be getting with the new phones.

The big takeaway? Apple should be worried, because it’s clear that Microsoft’s free offering is already more useful than Apple’s $99-a-year MobileMe service, which lets users sync mail, documents, and locate their iPhones.

“Windows Phone 7 is the first device designed from the ground up with Windows Live in mind,” wrote Microsoft VP of Windows Live engineering, Chris Jones. By entering your Windows Live ID when you set up your Windows Phone 7 device, it will automatically connect to Hotmail, Messenger, SkyDrive, and other Windows Live services.

The platform will use Exchange ActiveSync to bring your Hotmail messages, calendar entries, and contacts down to the phone. It also supports more than one Exchange connection, so you’ll be able to synchronize with your workplace’s Exchange server for email and calendar functionality.

Windows Phone 7 directly integrates with the new Windows Live Messenger, which has support for Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, in addition to its standard messaging capabilities. Just as you’d expect, signing on to Live Messenger on a Windows Phone 7 device will bring down the services you’ve already configured on your computer.

You’ll be able to send your photos to Skydrive, Microsoft’s free online storage service, and also set up the phone to automatically upload all of your photos to Skydrive. Microsoft is also finally shining a bit of a spotlight on OneNote — notes that you take on your phone will be synced to your SkyDrive and will also automatically sync to your PC OneNote software.

If you lose your phone, you’ll be able to locate it online by visiting the Windows Phone Live site. The service will place your phone on a map for you to hunt down, ring your phone (even if it’s set to silent or vibrate), or lock or erase your phone if you’ve lost it for good. Apple offers a similar tracking service for MobileMe subscribers.

The combination of mail, contact, and calendar syncing with free cloud storage, and free lost phone location means that Microsoft is offering pretty much everything Apple is currently charging MobileMe users $99-a-year (or $149 for a family pack) to receive. Microsoft even offers more cloud storage than MobileMe — 25GB on SkyDrive versus MobileMe’s 20GB.

After today’s launch, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple quickly makes MobileMe free for all users — or at the very least drastically reduces its price.

Getting content noticed is a challenge for everyone making apps. Join us at DiscoveryBeat 2010 and hear secrets from top industry executives about how to break through and profit in the new cross-platform app ecosystem. From metrics to monetization, we’ll take an in depth look at the best discovery strategies and why they’re working. See the full agenda here. The conference takes place on October 18 at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. To register, click here. Hurry though. Tickets are limited, and going fast.